Monday, March 14, 2005

Did George Mallory Summit Everest?

This story from Everestnews.com theorizes that he did. What would be the significance of this? Well, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay are currently ackowledged as the two men who summitted Everest first, in 1953. George Mallory disappeared somewhere near the summit in 1924. That would be a serious re-writing of history. Everestnews is organizing a search to find evidence of Mallory above the second step, which would be strong evidence that he made the summit. Mallory is a great story (see this book for good background and a great adventure story about the team of climbers who found the body of Sandy Irvine, Mallory's climbing partner on that day in 1924). My favorite thing about him is his reason for wanting to climb the mountain that killed him: "Because it's there."